T J's Pizzeria & Catering

All the hubbub was about the “Tavern Pie,” deemed a must-try by the OneBite community. I had high hopes and lofty expectations for this pizza; it looks supremely crispy and I thought it would be delightfully delicious…it was not. They should rename this pizza the “Grease Pie” because it is DROWNING in oil. With that bright orange tinge, it’s more of a “Pumpkin Pie.” The entire flavor of this pizza is suffocated by the vat of grease submerging the cheese, also making it impossible to distinguish the taste of the sauce. The prevailing flavors are salt from the oil-soaked cheese and bitterness from the overuse of oregano, neutralizing any sweetness from the sauce. The texture of the dough is anything but crispy; it’s a flimsy, floppy, soggy mess. Because this is a pan pizza, there’s no crust, just burnt edges like a circular version of Detroit style pizza. The crispy burnt edges are easily the best parts of the pie, but it’s not enough to salvage the overall score. This was just a massively disappointing pizza, horribly overrated, ruined by a plethora of oil. This should have been a layup in the 7s but it turned out to be all bark and no bite. In a bit of foreshadowing, the smell inside the pizzeria was that of hot garbage, an unpleasant, gross, foul stench. I’ve never walked into a pizza joint that didn’t smell tantalizingly terrific. That was the first sign of trouble in what wound up being a major letdown.